Growing mussels on longlines

Professor Andrew Jeffs (Leigh Marine Laboratory) describes the Japanese longline system, which is used to farm virtually all of New Zealand’s green-lipped mussels.

Transcript

PROFESSOR ANDREW JEFFS

The Japanese longline system for farming mussels involves a series of large plastic floats on the surface, with two lines running between them joining them up, in a line along the surface of the water, with an anchor on either end.

The mussel lines then are suspended from the ropes that run along the surface between the floats and so they hang down in the water column, so it gives a huge length of rope going up and down covered in mussels growing underneath the farm. One of the issues for a mussel farmer is making sure that they have enough floats, so as the mussels grow, the farmers often have to add more floats to keep the weight of mussels held up in the water column.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Professor Andrew Jeffs, Oliver Trottier – Leigh Marine Laboratory, Auckland University. Just the Job , Dave Mason Productions.  www.careers.govt.nz/resources/tools-and-activities/just-the-job